Sixth Mars Polar Science Conference (2016)
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DRILLING SUBSURFACE ICE AT THE HAUGHTON CRATER ANALOG SITE. B. Glass1, K. Zacny2, D.
Bergman1, G. Paulsen2, P. Lee1. 1NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94305, USA, Email:
brian.glass@nasa.gov, 2Honeybee Robotics, Pasadena, CA 91103, USA.
Abstract: Over a decade of evolutionary development
of integrated automated drilling and sample handling at
the terrestrial polar Mars analog site at Haughton Crater has made it possible to propose missions that could
sample 1-2m into rocks and ice on Mars. The eventual
search for biomarkers and signs of past or extant life in
Mars polar regions will require sample acquisition
there below the desiccated and irradiated surface.
Drilling and drill tests at the Haughton Crater site since
1998 have also shown a retreat downward of the active-layer boundary in annual measurements.
Introduction: Delving past the near-surface ice
layers likely to be encountered in Mars polar regions,
in search of organics and possibly life, will require
lightweight, low-mass planetary drilling and sample
handling.[1] Unlike terrestrial drills, these future exploration drills will work dry (without drilling muds or
lubricants), blind (no prior local or regional seismic or
other surveys), and weak (very low downward force or
weight on bit, and perhaps 100W of power available)
The Icebreaker-3 project drill in Figure 1 is a typical
prototype Mars polar 1m-class drill.
Given the lightspeed transmission delays to Mars,
an exploratory planetary drill cannot be controlled directly from Earth. Therefore highly automated operations will be necessary, with the ability to safe the
drilling system and recover from the most probable
fault conditions. [2]
Table 1. Mars-prototype drill tests at Haughton Crater.
tested fully hands-off drilling, including fault detection, recovery and resumption of drilling, without human intervention. [4] These NASA test efforts have
demonstrated end-to-end the automation necessary for
a drilling mission beyond the Moon such as the proposed Icebreaker drilling Phoenix-follow-on lifesearch mission shown in Figure 2. [5]
Fig. 2. Icebreaker mission concept [5] would return to the
northern Mars polar latitudes visited by Phoenix.
Fig. 1. Icebreaker-3 drill (a) with sample transfer arm on
Phoenix deck mockup (June 2014) and (b) at the Haughton Crater Mars-analog site (August 2014). [3]
Subsurface Sample Acquisition: Several past
NASA-sponsored development efforts have attempted
to test different aspects of automated Mars polar drilling. Table 1 shows five successive generations of rotary-drag and rotary-percussive drills that have been
tested since 2004 at the Haughton Crater Mars-analog
site in the Canadian Arctic. These have developed and
The Icebreaker-3 (IB-3) rotary-percussive drill,
completed in June 2014, was 3-5x less massive than
earlier Mars drill prototypes [3]. Power consumption
was 30-40 W, 200W max during 5-10 min drilling
sequences. It was tested in August 2014 at the Haughton Crater analog site, running automated drilling sequences. IB-3 drilled 5m, in six boreholes, and with
sufficient power (torque) and shaft stiffness to break
and penetrate hard rock and ice-consolidated material.
IB-3 drilled 2m in ice or ice-consolidated material.
Unlike prior prototypes [2], IB-3 drilled rapidly and
experienced almost no fault conditions [3].
Polar Impact Crater: The Haughton Crater planetary-analog drilling site is a high-fidelity analog for
Mars polar sites with subsurface ice (as at the Martian
higher latitudes) and the broken, depth-graded textures
similar to impact regolith. Haughton Crater is located
at approximately 75 degrees North, 89 degrees West
on Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada. The Haughton site
Sixth Mars Polar Science Conference (2016)
presents many Mars-analog aspects that have been
used over the past 19 years for both Science and Exploration Operations applications [see [6] for a summary].
The “Drill Hill” drilling test site is located inside
Haughton Crater, on an approx. 200 m-thick deposit of
impact breccia rubble and bedrock matrixed with
ground ice, with fluvio-glacial materials present secondarily as sparse surface drift. Figure 3 shows a Drill
Hill profile down to 3m depth. In addition to the drilling tests at Drill Hill (2004, 2006, 2009-14), other
drilling sites include a separate impact breccia deposit
near Trinity Lake (2005, 2008), a broad crater-rim-area
plain near the Haughton-Mars Project base camp
(2004), and on remaining residual post-impact crater
lake sediments near the center zone of Haughton Crater (1998).
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material. Ice-cemented materials beginning downward
with this active-layer boundary mark a significant increase in drilling effort and a reduction in headway.
Warmer or colder summer seasons lead to year-by-year
down (warmer) or up (colder) boundary variation of
some cm/yr.
Records of the active-boundary depth in Haughton
Crater boreholes also seem to show a noticeable overall change downward (warmer) over the past 18 years.
Figure 4 shows that the typical depths to encounter
frozen material in drilling have receded from the 4050cm depth typically encountered in 1998-2008 down
to approximately 70cm depth in recent years.
Fig. 4. Active layer boundary depth in Haughton
Crater, 1998-2015.
Conclusions: The Haughton Crater test site has
been a relatively high-fidelity Mars-analog site for
testing several generations of 1-2m class planetary
prototype drills. Drilling at this high-latitude polar impact crater site has also shown that the active-layer
boundary has generally receded downward when
measured at roughly the same time, year by year since
1998.
References: [1] Blacic, J., et al, (2000) AIAA
Space 2000. [2] Glass, B. et al, (2013) J. Field Robotics. [3] Glass, B. et al, (2015) LPSC XLVI. [4] Glass,
B. et al. (2008) Astrobiology. [5] McKay, C., et al,
(2014) Astrobiology. [6] Lee, P. and Osinski, G.,
(2005) Meteoritics and Planetary Science. [7] Glass,
B., et al, (2007) LPSC XXXVIII.
Fig. 3. DAME drill borehole reached 3m depth in
Haughton Crater impact breccia in July 2006. [7]
Active Layer Boundary Changes: The working
field season at the Haughton Crater site is typically
between mid-July to mid-August, with drilling usually
conducted in the middle of that period. As is common
in terrestrial periglacial environments, a thawed active
layer extends downward to a boundary with frozen